Saturday morning, around 5am, we were woken up by a loud pounding sound. When we opened our eyes, they were hit by the copious amounts of smoke that had amassed in our apartment. I got up immediately and ran to the bathroom to check the boiler, which had been making strange sounds of late. It was not the boiler though, but a fireman banging on the door to wake us up.
There appeared to be a fire somewhere in our building but we did not know where. At first, we were told to put on some clothes and evacuate. When had all got dressed (Olaf's brother Niels and sister-in-law Marielle were staying with us for the weekend) and were about to leave the house, another fireman came in and told us to stay inside and open all the windows to let the smoke out. We were dazed and confused, partially from the surreal situation we were in - and partially because we had had too much to drink and had only slept for three hours.
The danger was already over though. As it turned out, some crazy person had set fire to the baby strollers that were parked in the stairwell on the ground floor. Fortunately, one of our downstairs neighbours woke up in time to alert the fire brigade, who happen to be stationed around the corner and arrived soon after. In the end, it was the smoke that caused the damage, rather than the fire itself. Nobody was hurt, although two children had to go to the hospital because of respiratory problems. They have now been released from hospital, however, and are both fine. In the end, we were back in bed less than hour after we had been so roughly woken and tried to sleep for a few more hours.
We were very lucky. There has been an arson spree all over the city of Berlin recently, with apparently separate individuals or groups of arsonists covering different neighbourhoods. There were 11 fires that Friday night/Saturday morning alone, several of which in Prenzlauer Berg and two of which happened in our street. Buildings are set on fire almost every night and they have increased security in our neighbourhood. It appears the police have caught one of the arsonists who was active in another neighbourhood, but the fires continue. Thus far, one person has died and several have been wounded.
So you see, we really were very lucky. We hope this means we will be safe now since they have already torched part of our house. One positive outcome of the whole thing is that they have finally fixed the front door, which did not use to lock properly and which they entered through. Here are some pictures (courtesy of Marielle) of that night and what our stairwell looked like the morning after:
There appeared to be a fire somewhere in our building but we did not know where. At first, we were told to put on some clothes and evacuate. When had all got dressed (Olaf's brother Niels and sister-in-law Marielle were staying with us for the weekend) and were about to leave the house, another fireman came in and told us to stay inside and open all the windows to let the smoke out. We were dazed and confused, partially from the surreal situation we were in - and partially because we had had too much to drink and had only slept for three hours.
The danger was already over though. As it turned out, some crazy person had set fire to the baby strollers that were parked in the stairwell on the ground floor. Fortunately, one of our downstairs neighbours woke up in time to alert the fire brigade, who happen to be stationed around the corner and arrived soon after. In the end, it was the smoke that caused the damage, rather than the fire itself. Nobody was hurt, although two children had to go to the hospital because of respiratory problems. They have now been released from hospital, however, and are both fine. In the end, we were back in bed less than hour after we had been so roughly woken and tried to sleep for a few more hours.
We were very lucky. There has been an arson spree all over the city of Berlin recently, with apparently separate individuals or groups of arsonists covering different neighbourhoods. There were 11 fires that Friday night/Saturday morning alone, several of which in Prenzlauer Berg and two of which happened in our street. Buildings are set on fire almost every night and they have increased security in our neighbourhood. It appears the police have caught one of the arsonists who was active in another neighbourhood, but the fires continue. Thus far, one person has died and several have been wounded.
So you see, we really were very lucky. We hope this means we will be safe now since they have already torched part of our house. One positive outcome of the whole thing is that they have finally fixed the front door, which did not use to lock properly and which they entered through. Here are some pictures (courtesy of Marielle) of that night and what our stairwell looked like the morning after:
The front door to our apartment
Smokey!
There is a balrog of Morgoth hiding in the deep
Walls, ceilings, bicycles... all black!
So much for the view (between ground and 1st floor)
And, unfortunately, so much for the beautiful stucco on the ceilings, which will most likely have to be removed
And this is where it happened. Those pieces of metal on the left are all that remains of a baby stroller (which was probably very expensive, we live in yuppie central after all!)
But despite the fire, the heat and the smoke our postbox is still functional!
And the ironic thing was, the police had just put up warnings about the arson attacks in our neighbourhood the morning before, which did not stop them from coming in all the same
Well, on to happier topics. Before this weekend, we had wonderful weekends with Olaf's brother Lars, his wife Rachel and their two adorable girls Leah and Hannah, which consisted of lots of games since it rained the whole weekend. The week after that, Gerry, Louisa and Mickael came for a karaoke and alcohol-themed weekend of fun and surprisingly bad voices - which does not mean we were afraid of singing. We did not want to let the fire and short night get us down and managed to have a nice sightseeing tour by bike with Niels and Marielle. On Saturday night, we had dinner in one of the weirdest restaurants I have ever been to, a garlic-themed restaurant. Everything was garlic-based and I still smell of it, unfortunately the food was nothing special. I do hope Niels and Marielle had a nice weekend with us, although they did not get to relax as much as they had hoped. On the other hand, they did bring us a new garden gnome called 'Piet de Plasser' (aka 'Pete the Urinator'). Do you like him?
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